The Image Galleries are for the noncommercial use of our members to post images for discussion, showcase, or critique. The promotion of images for sale or imaging services for hire is strictly forbidden. By posting images in the Image Galleries you are soliciting other member's opinions on how best to improve your images and photomacrography and photomicrography techniques. You must be a registered member to post images and/or discussion in any of the forums or galleries. However, nonmembers may view the images and read the discussions in all of these places.

The person initially posting an image in any forum or gallery must be the owner of the copyrights. No exceptions!! Pirated images and links to images other than your own, presented for the purpose of display and/or critique as your own images, will result in immediate, nonrevocable expulsion from the forums and galleries. Respect the copyright laws and the rights of the image creators.

Do not rework and repost another member's image unless you have prior explicit permission from that member. No exceptions!! Read the discussion about Copyright Issues, later in these Guidelines.

These galleries are not for the posting of general photographic subjects. Inappropriate images will be moved to other forums or removed entirely, at the administrators' discretion. Nudity, vulgar, and/or pornographic images will result in immediate expulsion from the galleries and forums!! No exceptions!!

Post your image in the most appropriate gallery. Multiple postings of the same image in different galleries will result in the image being removed from all but one gallery.

The image posting limit for all Image Galleries is six (6) images during the course of one (1) calendar day. You can post one topic containing all six images, or three topics with two images each, or any other combination within the specified limits.

*Note: There is no limit for image postings in the technical discussion forums, as long as the images are specifically referenced in the discussions.

Images may not exceed 1024 pixels on the longest side. The 1024 pixel limit includes any special framing techniques used to enhance the image. Larger inline images do tend to make it difficult for people with small monitors or mobile devices (depending on device scaling capabilities) to fully appreciate your images or navigate the discussion.

The file size may not exceed 300 KB maximum. Although many of us have high-speed Internet connections we must remain respectful of those members who have limited connectivity and bandwidth concerns. Keeping image sizes and file sizes manageable will make for a pleasant experience for everyone.
NB: Image memory use can be controlled by jpeg compression quality, eg in Photoshop "Save for Web and Devices"

If you wish, you may gang multiple smaller images into one larger image but that larger image must not exceed the 1024 pixel, 300 KB limit. For example:

Images normally should be in RGB .jpeg format. Formats other than .jpeg are acceptable in special circumstances, such as using an animated gif to display a short "video loop".

Digital enhancement of an image is allowed. Common enhancements such as contrast control, color corrections, cropping/resizing, noise reduction, and routine sharpening can be done without comment. However, any enhancements that alter the "naturalness" of the image must be declared in the image post. Any type of "stacking" or image compositing should be noted; so should extreme or unusual amounts of cropping, sharpening, etc.

Use a descriptive title for your image posts. Cute titles look fun but most viewers will pass over those posts. Include a brief description of the equipment, techniques used to make the image, exposure information, and the location where the image was made. Some viewers learn a great deal from this information and it does help with image critiquing.

Do not post an image of your own in someone else's topic, without their permission, in any of the Image Galleries or Beginners Forums. This can be rude, especially if it diverts attention away from the original poster's image. If you want to post a similar or related image, create a new topic for your image and post cross-references between the two topics if appropriate. In technical discussion forums, images can be posted in anyone's topic as long as they help the discussion.

Do not use distracting elements. The purpose of our site is to encourage display and discussion of photographic images. This includes aesthetic and technical aspects of the images themselves, the equipment and techniques used to produce them, and the subjects shown in them. Elements that distract from those aspects should be avoided.

Moderate use of small inline "smilies" is acceptable, and the forum provides a wide selection for your use.

However, unusually large or flashy graphics and text are against the rules in all contexts. This includes the bodies of posts, signatures, and avatars.

Signatures, if used at all, should be short, concise, and free of "boilerplate text". No matter how good a motto sounds when said once, it becomes a pointless distraction when it appears in every post you've ever made. The current standard for Signature blocks specifies that "Signature may be a convenient place to put your name, a link to your Flickr photostream, or similar relevant factual things that you want to appear in every post. Do not use company names or links to commercial websites, and please avoid titles, degrees, and so on."

No advertisements. Advertisements and things that look like advertisements are not allowed in any contexts. The rule is especially stringent for signatures and avatars where they will be displayed with every posting that the member makes. Images of products or links to them can be displayed for purposes of discussion.

Avatars must show the member or the member's own work. The use of third-party images is not acceptable. It's also not acceptable to use an avatar that has the effect of promoting any product or cause (see "no advertisements", above). This site caters to photographers and we expect that most participating members can easily find an appropriate image from their own work. It's also fine to have no avatar at all; many members choose not to.

Editing and Deleting Posts. Errors and omissions in any post can be corrected by its author using the editing function. A post can also be deleted by its author if there have been no later posts in the same topic. For other situations, please contact an administrator and allow the administrator to delete the post at his/her discretion.

Be courteous and respectful in all postings. Name-calling and vulgarity of any kind will not be tolerated. We're all here to learn something and have a little fun with our spare time. Personal attacks take away from the benefits of enjoying an online community such as ours. For those individuals who may not be able to control themselves, you will find our rules of conduct will be vigorously enforced.

The administration of www.photomacrography.net reserves the exclusive rights to edit, remove, lock, or delete any image, post, response, discussion, or profile entry that may be viewed as offensive, vulgar, combative, "off topic", or otherwise violating site standards. An email regarding the issue will be sent to the person(s) responsible detailing the offense(s). Repeated bad behavior in any of the galleries or forums will result in the expulsion of the person(s) responsible.

Posting Images From Your Own Server:

Make sure that your image hosting service or website hosting service allow remote linking to images hosted on their servers. Other photography forums may offer on site galleries but will seldom allow remote linking. Check the "Terms of Service" of your hosting site for details.

Be sure to link only to the URL of the image and not to the URL of the web page on which the image resides. For example,

"http://www.amateurmicroscopy.net/About/about.htm"

is the page that contains an image of me (Tom). Do not use a URL that ends in ".htm" or ".html". The UBB code cannot display this as an image. Instead, the url of the image must end in ".jpg" or ".jpeg" to be displayed properly. For example,

"http://www.amateurmicroscopy.net/About/tom.jpg"

is the URL of the image of me and ends in ".jpg". This URL can be displayed as an image.

To display an image in the Image Galleries, enclose the URL of the image between the UBB code tags, "[img]" and "[/img]". That's it. From my example, above, to display my image of me in one of the Image Critique Galleries I would write in my post somewhere:

Note that the URL is bracketed by the UBB code "[img]" and "[/img]" tags, with no spaces, and the URL ends in ".jpg".

Copyright Issues -- Reworked and Reposted Images

We vigorously support a photographer's rights of image ownership and copyrights. Many online photography forums advocate the downloading, reworking, and reposting of other people's images as part of the "learning experience", doing so without consent of the copyright holder. We strongly disagree with this practice and feel that this is unethical, immoral, and illegal.

If you are the original creator of the image, the copyright holder, then you may post reworked versions of that image within your original topic, or in a new topic, at your discretion.

However, if you are not the copyright holder, then you cannot rework or repost any image unless you have prior explicit permission from the copyright holder. In addition, any reworked or reposted images made by anyone other than the original poster must be stored off-site on a separate web server, not at www.photomacrography.net, and reposted images count against the reposter's limit of 3 images per day per forum or gallery.

Any image that is downloaded, reworked, and reposted without the prior explicit permission of the copyright holder will be immediately removed. A warning email will be sent to the offending member. Further reworking and reposting without permission of the copyright holder will result in PERMANENT expulsion from the forums/galleries.

If you have received permission from the copyright holder that is not public, for example in an email, then please say that you have received permission when you do the repost. This avoids any appearance of impropriety.

If you like, you as copyright holder can proactively grant permission for reworks and reposts. You can give general permission in your signature, something like "Rework and reposts in this forum are always welcome." Or you can give permission in a particular image post, something like "Feel free to rework and repost in this topic."

Unless the copyright holder has expressed that it is OK to rework and repost his/her images then the viewer must assume that image reworks and reposts are not welcome by that photographer/copyright holder.

Thank you for your cooperation and we look forward to your continued enjoyment of our forums and galleries.

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Before reposting other member's images in a topic, you MUST receive permission from the image's owner FIRST. NO EXCEPTIONS!! The member who owns the image also owns the copyright to that image. We (the administrators) are very conscious of, and sensitive to, our member's copyrights. PLEASE, obtain permission FIRST before re-working and reposting another member's image. If, as a member, it is OK to re-work and repost your images by other members then you can give that permission by stating so in your signature line. Something like, "Re-works and reposts welcome in these forums/galleries only", will be sufficient permission. Please, let's all have respect for member's copyrights to their images. Failing to observe this rule will result in the reply with the re-worked and reposted image being deleted and a warning email to be sent to the offending member. Further re-working and reposting without permission of the copyright owner will result in PERMANENT expulsion from the forums/galleries._________________Tom Webster

Phoenix "The Valley of the Sun", Arizona, USA

The worst day photographing dragonflies is better than the best day working!